Bhopal: Call it change of electoral prospects or anti-incumbency, the choice was clear and glaring when Jan Aakrosh Yatra of Indian National Congress definitely scored over the hackneyed designs of BJP’s Jan Ashirvad Yatra. This was visible on the poll bound Madhya Pradesh on Monday. The BJP’s Jan Ashirvad Yatra turned out to be a damp squib even when the tall leader of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan were involved in the Yatra.
The INC that launched its Jan Aakrosh Yatra (Public Anger March) -made a clear cut over the BJP’s populist and pedagogic narratives to win over the hearts of the people of Madhya Pradesh. The BJP left no stone unturned to rope in its top leaders that was a re-engineered Media Blitzkrieg, while the INC with its flagship rally -Jan Aakrosh Yatra had made its presence felt among the people, the INC had deployed its regional leaders who knew the people from the bottom reached every hamlet, village town and city with its dedicated army of workers led by the local leaders.
It is not only the INC worked with its local leadership but also brought to light the hyper local issues that affect the lives of the basic ground level people addressing the problems they faced in their day-to-day life. In many places the leaders of the BJP were greeted with empty chairs which was later filled up with their own cadres and not common people. This indicated that the people are no more interested to listening to the run of the mill issues like Hindutva, Sanathan Dharma and hollow promises of development that had not touched their lives.
INC instead had began its Yatra by doing poojas of Ganesh Chaturti which also went well with the people as the power of ‘Vighna Nashaka’ was highlighted by the local leaders saying that the Jan Aakrosh Yatra wanted all difficulties addressed by the party with the blessings of Lord Ganesh.
It was also a clear lack of vision on the part of the BJP that their leaders harped on the old and hackneyed issues like Appeasement, Sanatan Dharma Hindutva, Gau mata and Love Jihad which just emotive issues that failed to enthuse the common man.
On the other hand the INC regional leaders had raised practical issues like Corruption, Commission, Atrocities against SC/ST, Women,Farmers, and failure to tackle Unemployment. These issues were connected to the people directly by the leaders and workers of the INC to the doorsteps of the people. This entire episode has trashed the concept of large public meetings and making bombastic speeches by the leaders trying to play to the gallery. A common man attending one of the Jan Ashirvad Yatra was heard saying “Congresswale tumhare Pichwade se Langoti Kheech ke Chalagaya, aur tumko Pata bhi na chala…”